The owner of a Harlow care home has been fined £120,000 in court after a 75-year-old woman was left with life-changing injuries when she got trapped in a shower seat.

The woman was showering with support from one of the carers at the Partridge Care Centre in Partridge Road, Harlow and a shower commode chair, which the court heard did not have a safety belt or foot plates.

Southend Magistrates’ Court heard on Thursday, February 1 that the woman was injured as a result of being trapped in the commode shower chair after the carer noticed the lady’s leg was sliding between a gap in the seat.

The carer called for help, but the woman slipped further, causing the chair seat to come out of its position and for her to fall further into the gap.

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Other members of care staff tried to help lift the woman, but the chair’s seat fell away and she became caught on a metal bar on the equipment.

The prosecution was brought against Rushcliffe Care Limited, the owners of the Partridge Care Centre, after the woman sustained a significant injury and required surgery – which left her with a stoma and colostomy bag.

James Lester, prosecuting, told the court: “Rushcliffe Care failed to take all reasonable steps and exercise all due diligence to ensure safe care and treatment was provided and that as a result a person using the service suffered serious avoidable harm.”

Following the incident, the Care Quality Commission carried out an inspection and launched an investigation into what had happened.

The care home admitted liability after the resident suffered serious life-changing injuries while showering

The court heard that in the months before the incident, the resident’s sitting balance had deteriorated, which left her at significant risk of leaning forward or slipping while showering.

The care provider knew this as a carer had reported her concerns about the lady showering to home managers, but nothing had been done to provide proper support.

Mr Lester told the court that the woman suffered injuries and was taken to hospital where she underwent surgery.

Prior to June 2015, the provider had no policy or suitable guidance for using commode shower chairs safely and staff who showered the resident did not have adequate instruction on how to keep her safe.

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The home had failed to promptly refer her for specialist assessment, despite the deterioration in her posture and risks identified by staff while showering, and the equipment used to support her was unsafe as it was the wrong size and provided insufficient posture support.

Mr Lester said: “The risk assessments in this resident’s care planning documentation were insufficient or inadequate to support her showering.

“In particular, they made no sufficiently clear of specific assessment either of the risks presented to her during showering, to the deterioration in her sitting balance in the moths prior to the incident, or the risk from the use of the shower commode equipment used to support showering her.”

Jemima Burnage, Head of Adult Social Care Inspection for CQC in the Central region, said:

“While we welcome that the provider accepted full responsibility for what happened in this case, we would always rather not have to take action because vulnerable people have been failed by those providing their care.

“We appreciate how distressing this has been for this lady and the lasting impact this has had on her and hope this case prompts other care home operators to review the care they provide and better ensure people’s safety.

“It was the serious failure of the home to protect people from avoidable harm that led to CQC’s prosecution of the provider. In its role as provider Rushcliffe Care Limited had a specific legal duty to ensure care and treatment was provided in a safe way. We found they had failed to do this by not ensuring risks had been fully assessed and measures were in place to prevent harm to this lady.

“Where we find any care provider has put people in its care at serious risk of harm, we will consider holding them to account by using our powers to prosecute."

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After admitting liability for the woman’s injuries and saying that they failed to provide safe care and treatment to one its residents, Rushcliffe Care Limited were fined £120,000 and ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge along with £17,826.37 costs.

Rushcliffe Care Limited also suspended use of the type of shower commode chair used by the resident at Partridge Care Centre.

Since the incident, the home has transferred ownership from Rushcliffe Care Limited to a new provider, Abbotts Care Centre Limited. It has also been renamed as Abbotts Care Centre.